Ag reps weigh in on recent precipitation

Posted on July 3, 2025 by Sunny South News

By Nathan Reiter
Southern Alberta Newspapers
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Regional farmers are celebrating the rain that southern Alberta received over the June 21-22 weekend.

Farming Smarter executive director Ken Coles says the rain will help increase the yield of several crops significantly.

“Any time in a semi-arid region, people are always going to be happy with rain and that was a beautiful, significant amount of rain that was spread out nicely over a couple of days.” Coles said. “I think it is probably going to increase the value of crops by hundreds of millions of dollars to be honest with you.”

Gary Tokariuk is the president of Alberta Sugar Beet Growers and operates a 900 acre operation just outside of Lethbridge consisting of sugar beets, wheat, barley and potatoes.

Tokariuk keeps up with fellow sugar beet producers in a group chat. In an interview with Southern Alberta Newspapers, he explained that the rain was consistent in volume throughout the region.

“Most areas have recorded around two inches. Bow Island was a little less, around an inch of rain in places.” Tokariuk said. “You get out in the dry land areas and some of those guys were up to four inches of rain. It varied a little, but in the irrigation areas, it was probably closer to two inches for most guys.”

Despite the heavy rain, Tokariuk says he noticed that the ground took on most of the water from the rain.

“I drove around after it was all done, and there was no standing water in any of the fields. I was worried that there might be water running down the rows, but it’s all soaked in. The way it came and the amount was perfect. If we could have ordered it, that was perfect.”

Irrigation plays a major role in many farming operations in southern Alberta. The province features nearly 680,000 hectares of irrigated land.

Tokariuk says the rain will allow farmers to avoid running their pivots for a few days, which will have an impact financially.

“Pumping with electricity, that’s one of the higher costs on an irrigation farm. We’re looking at probably 10 days without starting a pivot up here now. Everytime a rain comes like this, that certainly contributes to our bottom dollar so that was nice.”

About half of Tokariuk’s sugar beet crop sits in the St. Mary River Irrigation District where farmers were capped in their water usage. Tokariuk explained that the rain will be a game changer for certain crops such as potatoes or sugar beets.

“We were limited to 12 inches of water, (which is) borderline for making a crop. You add two inches on and we had two inches of rain before that. You add that on and now 12 inches is not looking like a problem.”